Mayor Bill de Blasio. Image credit: CityLand
The program will allow for outdoor dining until October 31st. As part of the City’s efforts to reopen and protect New Yorkers during the COVID-19 pandemic, earlier this month the City announced an expansion of outdoor dining options in connection with the Open Streets program. (more…)
Rhinelander Avenue in Morris Park, Bronx, one of many streets open to pedestrians and cyclists under the Open Streets program. Image Credit: CityLand
The plan will aim to add 100 miles of open streets, widened sidewalks and protected bike lanes. Note: This article has been updated to continuously reflect the added streets as those announcements are made. Please continue to check back for further updates.
On April 27, 2020, the Mayor’s Office announced a plan along with Council Speaker Corey Johnson to implement street closures, sidewalk widening, and the addition of bike lanes as part of the City’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak. The plan aims to close off streets to cars to provide more space for social distancing for pedestrians and cyclists as the weather gets warmer and more people are expected to go outside. (more…)
Map of Citi Bike expansion shown in dark blue. Expansion underway is shown in red. Existing CitiBike service shown in light blue. Image Credit: Mayor’s Office.
The Citi Bike expansion will double the current service area by 35 square miles and triple the number of bikes to 40,000. On July 16, 2019, the de Blasio Administration announced Citi Bike’s expansion. Last November, Lyft entered into an agreement with the City to invest $100 million in Citi Bike, which will double the size of Citi Bike’s service area and triple the number of bikes in the program. The expansion will take place from 2019 to 2023 and will bring Citi Bike to all of Manhattan, the Bronx, and deeper into Brooklyn and Queens. (more…)
Jarrett Murphy moderates the respondents’ panel featuring Tony Hillery, Regina Myer and Marlene Pantin. Image Credit: CityLand
On November 19, 2018, New York Law School hosted New Yorkers for Parks for their Open Space Dialogues: From Vacant to Vibrant. This installment of the Open Space Dialogues explored the ways New Yorkers have and want to, create nontraditional open spaces in unusual places, from a single lot or tunnel to entire neighborhoods and whole islands. The event was kicked off by Center for New York City Law Associate Director Brian Kaszuba, who introduced New Yorkers for Parks Executive Director Lynn Kelly. Kelly welcomed the speakers and introduced the topic. (more…)
Image Credit: GoogleMaps.
Red Hook developer converted commercial buildings into residential apartments. Harbor Tech LLC in 1999 purchased a commercial complex located in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn that had been built in the 1920s and used continuously for commercial purposes. Harbor Tech by 2005 had converted the five interlaced buildings of the complex into 100 residential units.
Thirty-five residents of the complex in 2013 sued Harbor Tech to have the City’s Rent Stabilization Law applied to the complex. In response, Harbor Tech argued that the complex was exempt from the Rent Stabilization Code because the buildings were “substantially rehabilitated” as residential units after 1974. The residents argued that the exemption did not apply because the regulations define “substantially rehabilitated” as requiring the replacement of at least 75 percent of the building-wide and apartment systems. The Supreme Court rejected the tenants’ argument, ruling that rent stabilization laws did not apply because the complex had been converted from commercial to residential, and the percentage of systems replaced was irrelevant. (more…)
